If you do a google on it you should find a Linux site that lists a whole lot of different wm's. I can't presently remember what it's called though.

Some good candidates from my end would be fluxbox and fvwm. If you have access to a RH disc they used to have a wm called "AnotherLevel" which was basically "fvwm" with a mega configuration setup (grin). FC ?. couldn't say there either. fvwm is the only one i really know about with any long term usage and is my main desktop ... so i will recomend it as a very configurable, powerfull and visually pleasing manager. But you would need to learn its' basic configuration style of course. Not such a problem once a person is used to it though. Pretty much like most things Linux. It uses two different pre-processor methods to pass its' config set. One based on the "c" preprocessor which seems to be default and another based on "m4". Iv'e found m4 to be the most usefull. It allows for much more flexibility, and just overall configurability than does the "c" preproccessor. www.fvwm.org

Fvwms' site will have a number of downloaderable example configurations available. As i would think, so will the others.

jm

Last edited by jjmac on Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

You don't say just really what you want it to do? For example, general home office type stuff (word processor, internet)? Also what type of PC are you running it on?

I run a 450 MHz AMD K6, with 512MB RAM, and a 8MB graphics adapter - for regular home use, it runs BeatrIX, which is based on Unbutu/Debian, and uses the Gnome desktop. It comes preloaded with very little, but still has Open Office (which I still find too heavy & have installed AbiWord), Firefox, Evolution (mail) and Gaim (plus a few others) It works a treat on such an old machine, and the desktop is as usable as any. I personally found the others, such as fluxbox, Icewm, xfce and the others a bit too basic (my 4 year old hasn't yet grasped right-click+menus & command line... )

IceWM is another good choice -- very light, ultra easy to use (apes Windows) and configuration isn't a big hassle either.

Oh, and it just DOES NOT CRASH. I've been running it since 1998 and, aside from one bug that has to be triggered deliberately, I've never had it fail.

OK, that's enough IceWM zealotry. Yeah, Xfce is tip-top for a more fully-fledged desktop without the weight of GNOME; it works especially well with GTK apps such as GIMP, AbiWord etc. Note that if you launch GNOME or KDE apps in a lighter WM, it'll still load up a lot of the desktop infrastructure -- so there won't be a big reduction.

For old machines it's best to use purely standalone apps such as Firefox, AbiWord. GAIM and so forth.

If you set up some Easy Urpmi sources from http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ you will find a choice of about a dozen or so lightweight window managers that are all packaged up for Mandriva. Try a few and see which one suits your way of working best.
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